The present invention relates to closures for containers. Particularly, the invention relates to bottle closures having decorative features, and bottle closures having contoured gripping surfaces.
Prior known closures for bottles include knurling on an outside surface thereof for enhancing gripping by a user. This knurling is usually in the form of axially oriented ribs. Such knurling is illustrated, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,818 and 4,398,645.
Closures can be formed by compression molding or injection molding. The closure is typically formed on a core pin. Particularly, prior known closures are formed on a core pin having an outside contoured surface to form threads on an inside surface of the closure. After the closure has solidified, the closure inside threads are engaged with the core pin outside threads. The closure is removed from the core pin by either stripping or unscrewing. In the case of closures which are unscrewed from the core pin, the closure is gripped by a removal chuck and turned. The removal chuck includes metallic gripping elements for turning the closure. Turning of the closure by the removal chuck with respect to the core pin unscrews and separates the closure from the core pin for eventual shipping to a bottler.
During bottling, after a bottle is filled, an application chuck can be used to grip a closure and screw the closure onto the bottle. The application chuck is part of a capping machine, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,646 and 5,157,897, herein incorporated by reference.
When a closure is to be turned by a chuck, the chuck typically includes an elastomeric element between the closure and the metallic gripping elements of the application chuck, to prevent the chuck from scratching or damaging the closure.
Prior known closures have included raised, molded graphics on the closure end wall, but not on the sidewall. This is due in part to the necessity of providing raised knurling on the sidewall and the necessity of providing a surface contour engageable by the application chuck.
The present inventors have recognized that it would be desirable to provide a closure having a decorative appearance on a sidewall thereof, and which could be effectively and economically manipulated by a closure chuck, and by a consumer.
The invention contemplates a closure for a container, the closure having a molded, raised decorative display on a sidewall thereof. The display includes spaced apart decorative elements forming gaps or spaces between the elements. A chuck can engage the closure and turn the closure by exerting tangential force on one or more of the display elements from a position within one or more of the gaps.
The raised decorative display includes a stepped radial extent or thickness along a radial direction. The display can also be stepped in the axial direction, preferably in decreasing radial extent, taken in an axial direction away from the open end of the closure toward the closed end of the closure. This allows for easy molding of the closure, and mold half removal, along an axial direction, from the formed closure. Alternatively, the stepped radial extent could be stepped in the axial direction in an increasing radial extent, taken in an axial direction away from the open end of the closure toward the closed end of the closure. In this case, a molding apparatus having a laterally expanded female mold half can be used such as described in U.S. Ser. No. 09/523,083, filed on the same day as the present application. The female mold half opens laterally to be removed axially, so as not to damage the raised, molded graphic. This application is incorporated herein by reference.
The display elements are preferably peaked elements formed by diverging sides, the diverging sides forming the gaps between display elements. The display elements can be entirely separated by the gaps between adjacent display elements, or can have base end regions connected in contiguous relationship, i.e., blended together. The display elements can be regularly spaced around the circumference of the closure to assist in machine operation, i.e., any misalignment of the closure and an applications chuck can be easily corrected.
According to the invention, the conventional knurling of prior closures can be replaced with more decorative features or displays. The decorative display elements form a contoured surface that can be easily gripped by a consumer to forcibly turn the closure. The display elements being regularly spaced, can also serve a functional purpose, to be engageable tangentially by a machine controlled chuck, to rotate the closure.
Numerous other advantages and features of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description of the invention and the embodiments thereof, from the claims and from the accompanying drawings.